The CPU in this laptop is about 300% faster than a netbook atom cpu. So if you are looking to buy a netbook for portability and battery power you should consider this laptop to get a lot of extra power.

Its just as good as the standard 15.4" mainstream laptops around £300 but this has the added benefit of dual switchable graphics and 10+ hours battery plus easy to carry around size.

Things that make this different from other laptops is the really good built quality.
Switchable graphics. You can use the integrated Intel 4500 when you want more battery power or switch to the ATI Dedicated graphics when you want to play games. You can switch within windows without restarting.

Also I have used this laptop for over 10 hours on Intel Graphics surfing the web so it can really last that long.

I saw this on scan today only and looked around IT247 is the cheapest by far. The only problem for me is its Vista business, which rules it out as the present I'm looking for.

Yes thats the only downside it has Vista . All the hardware is amazing for the price and if it had windows 7 it would be amazing. The software is quite easy to change though. Depends on how you can get Windows 7, what prices, if you have a spare copy maybe or what methods you can get it with.

How much would an SSD cost and would it be Diy or pay for install please?

Onmi

solidsnake1

Extra things you can do with this laptop:Add a 2nd HDD (Internal SSD) so you have a SSD and the 320gb hdd.Add a 3G WWAN PCIE Card - The sim slot etc is all ready in the back of the laptop.Overclock the CPU to boost it 25% in performance to 1.8GHZ. Doesn't seem to effect temps or battery life.

How much would an SSD cost and would it be Diy or pay for install please?

Onmi

solidsnake1

Extra things you can do with this laptop:Add a 2nd HDD (Internal SSD) so you have a SSD and the 320gb hdd.Add a 3G WWAN PCIE Card - The sim slot etc is all ready in the back of the laptop.Overclock the CPU to boost it 25% in performance to 1.8GHZ. Doesn't seem to effect temps or battery life.

You can get a 30gb ssd for about £50. Install the OS on that and then have all your files on the 320gb hdd.

You have to open up the laptop to install it though, remove the keyboard etc not too hard though if you opened things before.

You can overclock the CPU from 1.4GHZ to 1.8GHZ very easily. It gives a 25% performance boost. Makes things a lot snappier. It doesnt increase cpu temperatures or use more battery power.

You just download this file extract to your desktop and run the exe. Thats it. You can then check your cpu clock speed with CPU-Z tool or any other program you wish.
Your overclock isn't permanent it will reset back to normal after you restart your computer etc.

You can overclock the CPU from 1.4GHZ to 1.8GHZ very easily. It gives a 25% performance boost. Makes things a lot snappier.

Good gains, +1 for the effort.
However as much as I'm all for OC on desktop, not so much on the laptop - 25% doesn't mean much in general usability in browsing/word edit. A boost during encoding - yes.

What does make things a lot snappier (and actually a lot snappier) on it is SSD + Win 7 + correct drivers (i.e. no RealTek for Audio and no Acer apps).

You can overclock the CPU from 1.4GHZ to 1.8GHZ very easily. It gives a 25% performance boost. Makes things a lot snappier.

Good gains, +1 for the effort.
However as much as I'm all for OC on desktop, not so much on the laptop - 25% doesn't mean much in general usability in browsing/word edit. A boost during encoding - yes.

What does make things a lot snappier (and actually a lot snappier) on it is SSD + Win 7 + correct drivers (i.e. no RealTek for Audio and no Acer apps).

It is quite a big boost actually. You can see it when encoding and playing 1080p flash videos etc.

What do you mean with no realtek for audio? What driver do you have then? Does audio still work ?

You can overclock the CPU from 1.4GHZ to 1.8GHZ very easily. It gives a 25% performance boost. Makes things a lot snappier. It doesnt increase cpu temperatures or use more battery power.

You just download this file extract to your desktop and run the exe. Thats it. You can then check your cpu clock speed with CPU-Z tool or any other program you wish.
Your overclock isn't permanent it will reset back to normal after you restart your computer etc.

Very good price but i just can't bring myself to buy an Acer. Build quality of Acer products is poor regardless of what the Acer fanboys preach.

That's a myth. Perhaps in past it was the case but not anymore

I have at work business class (i.e. ~ £1K) HP and Dell Lattitude and can't tell for all Acer's but this 8371 is actually better built and feels more solid than both.
Also had Vaio's, Dell's and HPs consumer laptops and same feelings.

Wife has Timeline 4810TZG for a year and it doesn't make a squeak even when held by a corner and despite being dropped couple times.

You can overclock the CPU from 1.4GHZ to 1.8GHZ very easily. It gives a 25% performance boost. Makes things a lot snappier. It doesnt increase cpu temperatures or use more battery power.

You just download this file extract to your desktop and run the exe. Thats it. You can then check your cpu clock speed with CPU-Z tool or any other program you wish.
Your overclock isn't permanent it will reset back to normal after you restart your computer etc.

MIght have considered swapping this for my UL30 as it has no bluetooth and slower processor
The mousepad drives me nuts sometimes
I did put an SSD in and it is much nippier though
Anyone seen or used the 2 side by side and can say the Acer is as good build quality (apart from the UL30's slightly bouncy keyboard) ?
The Acer doesn't look to have HDMI which I use sometimes maybe because a bus lappy ?